


Introduction to Secret Keeping

by HareStomp



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fluff, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:42:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25109425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HareStomp/pseuds/HareStomp
Summary: What if Jeff was hiding a different secret from the study group in Paradigms of Human Memory?
Relationships: Annie Edison/Jeff Winger
Comments: 20
Kudos: 67





	1. Paradigms

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this with loads of help from the people over at the community discord, you should come join us :)  
> Also this is my first fanfic!
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Community.

Jeff walks into his apartment after another long day at Greendale. He walks over to Duncan, who was sitting on his couch watching tv, and gives him a pat on the back “You want a beer?”

Duncan turns around “Yeah sure, how was the engagement party?”

“As always, interesting, sometimes I seriously don’t understand Pierce and the rest of them.” He says as he walks over to the fridge.

“Are you ever planning on telling them? It’s getting seriously annoying to keep this a secret especially while teaching all of you.” Duncan turns to address Jeff directly while asking his question.

“Ughh, I know I should but now I feel like I’ve just waited too long and I don’t even know how to bring it up now, and I’m pretty sure no one would believe me anyways.” Jeff grabs two beers from his fridge and comes back and hands one to Duncan.

“Well, the longer you wait, the harder it will get, my boy.” Duncan cracks open his beer and clinks it with Jeff’s. Jeff takes a deep sip.

“God I just know they’re all gonna react horribly, I don’t want to deal with their shit.” Jeff says whilst leaning back on the couch.

“Well it may be time for you to reveal your big secret, the school year is coming to an end and do you really want to go another summer avoiding them to keep it a secret?” Duncan remarks whilst taking a contemplative sip of his beer.

“No, I’ll do it by the end of the week for sure, god I just really don’t want to.” Jeff leans forward and cradles his head in his hands.

“Well I should get going, I’ve gotta call my mum and check in on how she’s doing.” Duncan gets up, sets his beer on the table, and walks out the door.

Jeff yells out a goodbye as Duncan leaves and once the door shut he lays out on the couch, he lets his thoughts wander for a moment as he thinks about how the group would react, he doesn’t go down that line of thought for too long though. He gets up, trashes his beer and enters into the second bedroom in his apartment. He takes a moment to admire the hard work he put into making a perfect room for his princess when he got booted out of his condo, and then he walks in and presses a light kiss on her forehead and whispers “Goodnight Alison” and walks out over to his own bedroom and passes out as soon as his head hits the pillow.

***

The next day Jeff goes to study group ready to work on the final diorama for Duncan’s idiotic class and hopefully get done early so he can hang out with Alison for a bit after school. Unfortunately, that's not what the rest of the group has planned when Chang finds Annie’s boobs secret stash of memorabilia and the gang begins to reminisce. Jeff really isn’t in the mood though and he just wants to go home and see his daughter.

“Guys can we just get our work done? I really don’t have the time for reminiscing.” Jeff says in a bored tone.

Abed gives Jeff an analytical stare, like he’s computing something in his brain. The group starts to get back to work when Abed plainly states

“Jeff has a secret kid he hasn’t told us about.”

The group all gasps and turns to stare at Jeff who is turning a dark shade of red and is opening and closing his mouth but no words are coming out, for once in his life, he’s speechless.

“Oh Abed, I don’t believe Jeff to be exactly the fatherly type, and if he was he would’ve told us about it, right Jeffrey?” Shirley states in a pointed motherly tone.

“But think about it,” Abed begins to lay out his case “Exhibit A, Why do you think Jeff rarely hangs out with us after school?” The group begins to hum in agreement “Exhibit B, He completely disappeared last summer, why do you think that was? Exhibit C, why do you think Jeff is always so secretive about his old life and his apartment?” Abed takes a breath as he prepares to make his final case “And Exhibit D, when I went to his apartment once to ask for him to return a DVD he borrowed from me he had a bunch of childrens toys behind him.”.

The group takes in all the information Abed just dumped on them as Jeff slowly composes himself, realizing now is a better time than any to tell them. He clears his throat

“Well I don’t know what more to say other than, Abed is right. I have a kid.” He looks up at the ceiling to avoid eye contact with the 6 faces he knows are shocked currently. Annie clears her throat.

“Well tell us about them you idiot!” She says in a joking tone filled with curiosity. Jeff looked down at their faces and realized none of them looked mad, just, curious. He cleared his throat and readied himself to tell them all about his daughter.

“Well, she’s 7 years old and in the second grade, her name is Alison, and she’s my little princess.” Annie and Shirley both give their signature awww’s at that comment “What do you guys want to know?” Shirley begins to cough to catch Jeff’s attention.

“Who is Alison’s mother? I do hope this poor child wasn’t born in sin.” She raises her voice a little bit at the end. Jeff just coughs and looks down.

“Well I guess we’re jumping straight to the big questions, you sure you don’t want to know her favorite color or something?” Jeff attempts to joke but everyone is just giving him curious stares, especially Annie who is giving him a pointed look. “Erm, well, her mother's name was Madeline, we dated for a few years back when I was a lawyer, after about 2 years of dating we found out she was pregnant, and we decided we were ready for a kid. So a year passes and she has Alison and we lived happily for another year when…” Jeff trails off while attempting to hold back the emotion this story brings out in him “She got in a car accident, and died. I was left a single dad, so that’s the story.” The study group was all looking at him with looks varying from pity to true sadness. Abed was the first to speak.

“So you’re like Liam Neeson in Love Actually” Abed starts nodding and Jeff, choosing to ignore Abed’s poorly timed reference, addresses the group.

“Anybody else have a wildly inappropriate comment to make, Pierce? You’ve been uncharacteristically quiet.” Jeff turns his head to look at Pierce who is looking back at him with a face Jeff has never seen on him before, one of empathy.

“Jeff you have a great opportunity with this kid right here, hold onto them while you can.” The group turns to look at Pierce after he makes the surprisingly wise comment.

“Well Pierce, that was much nicer than I expected, thank you.” He turns back to the rest of the study group “Well what do you guys want to know? You’re always so inquisitive about my personal life. I know for a fact you have questions.” Britta gets into the conversation to throw a jab at Jeff.

“Well Jeff, I just hope I’m not the one who’s her therapist when she grows up.” Jeff just stares at her dumbfounded

“That was a low blow even for you Britta, just wow, anybody have actual questions?” Jeff looks at each member of the group pointedly avoiding Britta.

Annie is the first to pipe up “Can I babysit her sometime?” she says with the enthusiasm Jeff has only ever seen Annie muster up.

“That would actually be pretty helpful, currently Duncan’s my main babysitter but it would be nice to have somebody else helping out who isn’t constantly passing out in ditches.” Abed cuts in on Jeff’s sentence immediately after he finishes speaking.

“That’s why Duncan is always randomly disappearing!” then he begins to mutter something about plot convenience and busy ‘actors’. Troy, whose brain has finally caught up on the whole situation pipes in for the first time.

“Hold up you cannot just gloss over the fact that you told DUNCAN about your kid, and not US! I thought we were your best friends man.” Troy starts to cry lightly about his revelation. Jeff turns to Troy to address his concerns.

“You guys seem to forget that me and Duncan used to be drinking buddies, he actually met Madeline so of course he knows about the kid.” He returns his attention to the group and asks “Any more questions?”

“Why have you never told us about her, and were you planning on ever telling us? Like Troy said, I thought we were your best friends” Annie asks with a slight pout. Jeff clears his throat, he knew this was gonna come up but he still doesn’t want to answer it.

“That’s a little complicated, at first I just didn’t think it would be important and we wouldn’t be friends this long, but then at a certain point. it just felt like it had been too long and then I just didn’t want to cause it would be awkward. I was planning on telling you this week though so I wouldn’t have to avoid all of you for an entire summer again.” Jeff lets out a sigh of relief feeling like he had answered the hardest question they could have for him. Shirley then decides to finally make a comment about her opinion.

“Well Jeffrey, I never had you pegged as a single parent but it is quite respectable of you, even if the child was born in sin.” She says this sincerely with just a hint of judgement, Jeff was pretty happy about this reaction, he was the most scared about how Shirley would react knowing it could go two ways. Troy who had stopped crying after Jeff’s explanation then hops in excitedly.

“Oooo when can we meet her Jeff?” Jeff rolls his eyes at this but he knew this part was inevitable once he told them about Alison.

“You guys can probably come over to my apartment and meet her this Friday” he says with a sigh. Everyone in the study group became very excited at the prospect of meeting Alison, and Jeff finally felt a burden lift off of his shoulders that he had been holding for a while. Now he just has to worry about his entire study group behaving around his little princess.


	2. The Study Group meets a new member

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang visits Alison

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to the people over on the Community discord, specifically jeffwing (1sttimefeeling), ChildishGlover, and Skitzer1985 for their help!

Jeff and Duncan are sitting on the couch in Jeff’s apartment watching cartoons with Alison when Duncan decides to say something.

“Buddy, what are ya thinking about? You’ve been quiet for pretty long over there.” He turns to Jeff who has a pensive look on his face.

“I don’t really know what I’m thinking about myself, like I should be happy that I don’t have to hide this from them anymore, but also, I’m stressed about them meeting Alison. I really just don’t know.” Jeff says while cradling his head in his hands. Alison turns to look at him when he says her name but turns right back to the TV after, fully engrossed.

“Sounds like a lot, but if they didn’t react that bad I see no reason this could go south.” Duncan turned his attention back to the TV thinking the conversation was over but Jeff had a different idea about that.

“It’s just she’s so shy and I don’t know how she’ll react to meeting so many new people at once, Troy and Abed will probably get along with her well since they’re basically children themselves but I don’t know about the rest.” Jeff makes a point to not mention Alison directly to make sure she doesn’t listen in on what he’s saying, but she seems so zoned out she wouldn’t have even noticed.

“I'm sure it’ll be fine--” Duncan is cut off by a knock at the door, Jeff gets up to go get it.

“Well I guess I won’t be able to think about it anymore, who the hell is showing up 20 minutes early.” Jeff walks up the door and looks out the peephole to see Shirley standing there with a pie in hand. He opens the door and invites her in.

“Hello Jeffery!” She looks behind to see Alison sitting on the couch “and hello Alison, it’s very nice to meet you!” Alison turns to acknowledge Shirley with a meek wave.

“Hi” She says in a shy tone, Shirley awws at her as Alison turns back to the television.

“You know you shouldn’t let her watch so much TV, it’s not good for her.” Shirley addresses Jeff, he tenses at the inquiry, he had been hoping she wouldn’t be too critical of his parenting.

“Usually I set a limit on it, but I wanted her to be comfortable today, she’s pretty shy, that’s also why Duncan’s here so she has somebody else she knows.” Shirley, seemingly satisfied by his explanation, goes over to talk to Alison.

“Hi, I’m Shirley!” Alison turns away from the TV visibly a little uncomfortable but she still responds.

“I’m Alison, it’s nice to meet you.” Alison says with a shy smile. Shirley turns to Jeff.

“Well it seems like you’ve taught her good manners, nice work Jeffrey.” The next 20 minutes are spent with Shirley and Alison making slightly uncomfortable conversation as Jeff watches from the couch occasionally jumping in on questions if Alison seems like she’s too uncomfortable to answer. As he’s starting to wonder where everyone else is he hears a knock on his door, he gets up to go get it.

“Thank god.” he mumbles as he walks over to the door, tired of being with just Shirley and Duncan, a pairing that doesn’t exactly get along. He checks the peephole and sees Troy and Abed, and for once he’s happy to see them. If anybody could get Alison to come out of her shell it’s these two.

“Hey guys, how are you doing?” Jeff addresses the dynamic duo who are both standing there with massive smiles plastered on their faces. Abed is the first to speak.

“We’re doing good, can we come in?” Jeff motions for them to come inside and Troy runs right over to Alison and starts introducing himself excitedly, and his enthusiasm brings out the same enthusiasm in Alison, Jeff had a feeling Troy would be pretty great with her. While he’s standing there watching the two talk he realizes Abed is still standing next to him.

“Hey Abed, whats up?” He turns too see him staring back at him expectantly.

“I was wondering if I could use Alison in one of my upcoming films, I’ve been having trouble finding a good kid to fill the role. I was going to ask when we found out but it didn’t seem like the right scene for my antics.” Jeff just stared at Abed dumbfounded, both because of his odd question and his ‘meta’ comment.

“Um, maybe, can I get back to you on that, I’d wanna ask Alison first.” Jeff sputters out his response still a little confused, also doubtful that his daughter would ever want to do something like that. Abed, seemingly pleased with the answer, walks over to Troy and Alison and the three of them being playing some of their stupid games. Jeff is pretty pleased that he was right about those three hitting it off so he goes back to the couch to take a seat between Duncan and Shirley.

“Why does she love them so much already when she barely opened up to me.” Shirley complains, Jeff turns to her with a confused look, like that’s the most obvious question in the world.

“Shirley, Troy and Abed are basically children themselves, of course the three of them are gonna get along.” Jeff states this matter of factly, Shirley turns to see the three of them messing around in the dining area.

“I guess that makes sense, I just wish I could’ve connected with her better.” Duncan, who had been listening to the conversation, decides this is a subject he can hop in on.

“Well Shirley, it took many a meeting between me and sweet little Aly for her to begin to open up to me, so don’t be disconcerted at a strikeout on the first meeting.” Shirley looks at Duncan appreciatively.

“Since when are you such a nice person, Professor Duncan?” Shirley states in a curious tone.

“Oh Shirley, please call me Duncan, no need for formality outside of the classroom. For your information though, I’m currently sober because Jeff doesn’t allow me around his princess while I’m drunk.” Jeff nods and then there's another knock at the door, he gets up to answer it and sees Annie through the peephole looking a little frantic, he opens the door.

“I’m sorry I’m late, there was a fight right outside my apartment, sorry!” She says frantically spitting out the sentence as fast as possible. Jeff just stands there trying to absorb what she said.

“Um, well come on in, Alison is over in the dining area with Troy and Abed if you want to go say hi.” Jeff steps out of her way to allow her into the apartment.

“Thanks! I’m so excited to meet her!” Annie exclaims as she runs over to Troy and Abed. Jeff just stands in the doorframe, as he’s standing there Britta walks up to him and gives him a punch on the shoulder.

“Hey, how’s it going?” Jeff turns to her as he’s startled out of his reverie.

“Pretty good so far, Troy and Abed are hitting it off with Alison as expected, you can go say hi to them over there.” He points to the dining area.

“Actually I kind of wanted to talk to you for a second, that okay?”

“Sure, what’s up?” He’s a little scared of what Britta wants to talk about considering her comment when she found out about Alison.

“Well I actually kind of want to apologize..” She trails off and starts scratching the back of her head and avoiding eye contact with Jeff “I know my comment the other day was pretty out of line, I just really didn’t know how to react. This is kind of crazy you know? So I just went with my default of mocking you but, yeah, that was probably not the best thing to do.” Jeff startled by the rare showing of emotion by Britta just stands there looking at her.

“Wow, that actually means a lot Britta. I know I probably should have told you guys sooner, but thank you for apologizing. Alison’s already with a lot of people right now so maybe you could just go sit with Shirley and Duncan for a bit.” He gestures over to his couch.

“Sure, and once again I really am sorry.” She walks over to the couch and almost as soon as she sits Shirley gets up and runs over to the kitchen with some excuse about her pie. Jeff takes a seat at the kitchen counter to just calm down for a minute. Duncan, sensing an opportunity, begins to hit on Britta.

“So, what’s up with you Britta?” She turns to him surprised, having expected some sleazy pick up line from him.

“I haven’t been great honestly, I’m still feeling a little guilty about mocking Jeff when he told us about Alison.”

“I’m sure he doesn’t mind too much, it’s his own fault for waiting so long in my opinion.”

“I agree! He should’ve told us day 1, but I guess that’s not really his M.O.” Happy to have somebody agreeing with her Britta starts excitedly talking with Duncan, actually having a pretty decent time. After a bit she just has to ask though “Since when are you so nice? I’m so used to you being an ass.”

“Well, I’m sober around Aly per request of Jeff.” Duncan thinks about getting back on the wagon if it ups his chances with Britta.

Back in the kitchen Jeff is watching Annie interact with his daughter and daydreaming a little about having a true family, but quickly tries to dispel the thoughts by chanting ‘20 years old’ over and over again in his head. Troy and Abed have gone over to another corner and are having their own little conversation

“Troy, look at Jeff, I think he’s having his romantic epiphany moment.” Abed says.

“Oooh, who’s he having it about, Britta?” Troy asks with intrigue showing in his voice.

“No, he’s having it about Annie.” Abed states plainly like it’s obvious

“Annie? Since when has that been a thing?”

“Troy, Troy, Troy, have you not noticed the unresolved sexual tension between those two? It’s glaringly obvious. Now we just have to get him to act on his realization.”

“How are we gonna do that though?”

“Remember when Annie brought up babysitting? We need to get him to take her up on it, so we have to make sure to get Duncan out of the picture as well.” Troy starts bouncing up and down with the excitement of making a plan with Abed.

“Ooh ooh ooh I have an idea! How about we set up a boys night with Duncan as well!” Abed stares back at Troy and a very rare slight smile creeps onto Abed’s face.

“You’re a genius Troy, lets go talk to Duncan.” As the wonder boys start chatting up Duncan there’s another knock at the door and Jeff sighs as he stands up to go get it, even though he’s inwardly happy at the distraction from his thoughts that had begun to get dangerous. He opens it already knowing it would be Pierce.

“Hey Pierce, glad you could make it.” Jeff states as he shakes hands with the older man.

“I’m excited to meet your little girl, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.” Pierce states this with much more enthusiasm then Jeff expected.

“Well thanks, it means a lot that you’re supportive, I wasn’t expecting it from you.” Pierce gives Jeff a pat on the back.

“Well Jeffrey, I’m just happy for you, I never got the opportunity to have a family of my own. It truly is a blessing that I’m happy you’ve been able to experience it when I didn’t.” Jeff has been enjoying Pierce’s demeanor recently as he has been much warmer towards him then he ever had in the past.

“Thank’s Pierce, that was surprisingly insightful. You can go over and meet Alison now, she’s with Annie in the dining area.” Pierce walked away from Jeff and instantly Troy and Abed are right next to him staring him down.

“Jesus guys!” Jeff exclaims as he turns to see them “Maybe give a guy some warning before you appear out of thin air right next to him.”

“Jeff, we were wondering if you could join me Abed and Duncan next week Friday for a boys night?” Troy states in the most even tone he can muster with his excitement.

“Um sure, I’m gonna need to find somebody to take care of Alison though, and since when are you two chumy with Duncan?” Abed ignoring Jeff’s question cut’s straight to the chase.

“You could ask Annie to babysit, she offered.” Abed states plainly

“I guess I’ll ask her about it, what are we gonna do for guys night?” Jeff says, Troy takes on the question.

“We’re gonna watch some movies and drink some beers, sound good?” Troy says, Jeff just nods

“That sounds fun, I’m gonna go check on Alison quick.” Jeff walks over to where Annie and Alison are sitting, Pierce having left to have some of Shirley's pie. “How’s it going, you two getting along?” Alison turns around with a big grin on her face.

“Yeah! I love your friends daddy!” She gets up to give Jeff a hug, Annie looks at the interaction with a slight smile on her face, enjoying this new side of Jeff she had never seen before. Jeff distracts her from her reverie pretty quickly though.

“Hey Annie, I was wondering if you could possibly babysit Alison next Friday, Me, Troy, Abed, and Duncan are gonna have a guys night. Considering you two seem to have hit it off I think it would go well.” Annie is bubbling with excitement at the opportunity to babysit Alison.

“Of course! I’d love to spend more time with her!” Annie can barely contain her excitement as she starts slightly bouncing in her chair. Jeff turns down to address Alison, who is still hugging him.

“Hey Alison, would you be happy with Annie babysitting you next week?” Alison tilts her head up to look at Jeff whilst still embracing him.

“Yes!” She starts giggling and shoves her head back into his torso. Jeff turns back to look at Annie.

“You sure you're okay with this? I’ll pay you, don't worry.” Annie, still bouncing in her chair a little, responds.

“Oh no need to pay me, think of it as a favor and I really do want to spend more time with Alison!”

“Wow thanks, I definitely owe you one then.” Jeff and Annie talk for a little longer about some details when it comes to babysitting Alison.

***

As the party winds down Jeff and Annie are the only members of the study group left, everyone else already having left. Jeff turns to Annie after waving Troy and Abed out.

“Once again, thank you so much for agreeing to babysit Alison, this guy’s night seems like it could be a lot of fun.”

“Oh it’s really no problem, I’m super excited!” Annie responds with her classic Annie enthusiasm which Jeff notices involves a lot of bouncing, and that bouncing leads to the bouncing of other, ahem, _assets_ ‘NO! Stop thinking like that, she’s twenty and off-limits’ Jeff begins to berate himself in his head when a new voice he hasn’t heard before joins in ‘but is there anything _really_ wrong with it? She’s more mature then all of the study group and Alison needs a good female role model’ As the two voices in his head argue Jeff realizes he’s been silent for far too long so he clears his throat.

“Well, I guess you should get going, see you on Monday?” Annie, still bouncing a little steps in to give him a hug.

“Of course, it was nice seeing you, Jeff.” She then turns around to Alison and gives her a hug as well “It was nice meeting you, Alison.” Annie walks over to the door and turns around one last time to wave.

“See ya, Annie.” Jeff says

“Bye Annie!” Alison says enthusiastically as Annie walks out the door. Jeff turns to Alison.

“Well it’s probably time to get you to bed little one. Come on.” Jeff starts walking over to her bedroom and Alison follows him. “Come on get in bed you lil rascal.” Jeff says as he rubs her head. Alison giggles and hops up into her bed.

“Goodnight daddy, can your friends come over again soon?” She says it with a slight pout and what looks like the Disney eyes Annie has given him time and time again ‘did she teach her that?’ he thinks for a second then responds.

“Of course they can, goodnight sweetie.” He plants a kiss on her forehead then walks out of the room. He goes over to the kitchen and pours himself some scotch and sits down on his couch and starts watching some crappy TV on low volume. Jeff finds his thoughts drifting off to Annie and wondering if the two of them together could work. He realizes the voice fighting against the relationship is slowly getting weaker. Jeff falls asleep on his couch thinking of Annie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any feedback is appreciated as this is my first work.


	3. Fundamentals of Babysitting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annie babysits Alison

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again thanks to all the people over in the community discord for encouraging me to write this out and helping brainstorm ideas!

Annie walks up the stairs of Jeff’s apartment building, ready to babysit Alison. She hasn’t babysat much recently, outside of Shirley’s kids she hasn’t really had anybody to help with babysitting. Now she had Jeff’s kid though, Jeff’s kid, that’s still a concept she was getting used to. The Jeff with a kid feels so detached from the Jeff she knew before, and she still isn’t sure how to feel about it. She still feels pretty conflicted about it all, on one hand the side of Jeff that she sees with the kid is super cute and fun to see, but she’s still mad at him for keeping this massive secret for so long. As she walks up to the door she gets ready to knock, she’ll have to sort out how she feels later. Jeff opens the door.

“Hey! How are you doing?” He says to Annie as he motions her into his apartment. She takes a look around, still not quite comfortable in his place.

“Pretty good, where’s Alison?” Annie asks Jeff.

“She’s just in her bedroom, once again thanks so much for this. I’m really interested in what got Duncan into hanging out with Troy and Abed.” Jeff says walking over to his console table to grab his keys.

“It’s really no problem, I love babysitting and haven’t gotten to do much of it recently with Greendale and everything.” She says as she starts walking around the apartment examining the place, she notices that the kid stuff is kept pretty separate from Jeff’s stuff. Which creates a weird dynamic where random corners and shelves are just packed with kids toys. This helps connect the Jeff she knew at Greendale to dad Jeff.

“Ok well, I guess I should get going. You remember everything we went over?” Jeff asks.

“Yes yes I know, in bed by 9, no dessert before dinner, I got it. Jeff you know me, do you think I didn’t go over everything a bunch of times before I got here?” Annie retorts and Jeff just nods and chuckles nervously.

“Yeah I get it, it’s just the nerves of leaving her with somebody new, see ya.” Jeff says as he walks out the door. Annie finds this little moment of protectiveness from Jeff cute, as she starts to piece together the two Jeff’s she’s come to know she walks over to Alison’s room.

“Hey Alison, it’s me Annie from the other day, how are you?” Annie says as she tentatively walks into Alison’s room, not a hundred percent sure that she would be recognized or if their connection would be remembered. It obviously was remembered as Alison squealed and ran up to Annie to pull her into a tight embrace.

“Hi Auntie Annie!” Alison said as she giggled. ‘Huh, Auntie Annie is new, Jeff must have taught her some nicknames, that’s nice’ Annie thought when she heard the new name. She was pretty happy that Jeff thought of the study group as enough of a family to have her calling them Aunt’s and Uncle’s. Then she thought about cute little Alison calling creepy drunk Duncan ‘Uncle Duncan’ and shuddered and pushed the thought out of her head.

“Awwww, hello.” Annie says as she backs out of the embrace. “So what do you want to do?” Annie says as she crouches down to be at Alison’s height, she doesn’t have to crouch that far as she realizes Alison is surprisingly tall for a 7 year old girl. ‘She really is her father’s daughter huh’ Annie thinks. Then she starts to wonder what her mother looked like, sure she can see the similarities to Jeff in her appearance, the blue eyes, which she quickly noticed and then taught Alison to take advantage of the other day. She also has sandy brown hair very similar to Jeff’s, but then there are some features she doesn’t recognize from Jeff that must be from the mother, such as the cute little dimples Alison has. She then starts thinking about how she’s always kind of loved the name Alison for some reason. Annie is pulled out of her reverie by Alison’s enthusiastic voice.

“Can we play teacher?!” Alison asks in a sort of scream squeal combination that Annie can’t help but do her signature aww at.

“Sure we can, but you’re gonna have to teach me how to play first.” Annie says in a calm even tone even though Alison’s enthusiasm was starting to rub off on her. Alison proceeds to give an in depth explanation as to how ‘teacher’ was played that sounded rehearsed. As Annie thought it about it more she realized it definitely was rehearsed, she finds it pretty funny that Jeff would take the time to help his daughter explain to somebody how to play a game just so she could play it with babysitters.

As Annie plays teacher with Alison she begins to realize how much like Jeff Alison is, sure she knew theoretically the two would be very similar, it was just weird to see it in action. As Alison pretended to be a teacher she noticed how easily she could command a room with confidence, even if there was technically only one person in it. She also noticed how she lied with authority, sure in this case she was just making up facts, but she found herself thinking about Jeff’s fake conspiracy class from the previous semester and how easily he lied. Soon Alison got tired of playing teacher and that ended up with them just talking and playing with dolls. Annie couldn’t help but giggle at the thought of Jeff buying these dolls at a store.

In a lull of conversation Alison turns to Annie.

“Do you love my daddy?” Annie turns a bright shade of red and begins to sputter, entirely startled by the random question.

“What?!” Annie manages to spit out in confusion.

“Do you love my daddy?” Alison repeats her question like it’s a simple one, and not one filled with nuance and ‘complications’ as Jeff would call them. Annie takes a few deep breaths to calm down before she even attempts to answer the question.

“Well there’s a bit more to it then that, sure I love him as a friend but my feelings beyond that are a little bit more” Annie pauses to consider her next word “...complicated.” She hates using that word after her encounter with Jeff in the bathroom but it really did explain how she felt about him pretty well. Sure she would love to go out with him, but it’s become quite clear to her that it wasn’t gonna happen anytime soon.

“Well that sounds stupid, you should date him.” Alison says and Annie is once again surprised by the bluntness of her statement. She wasn’t planning on digging up her feelings for Jeff tonight but she guesses if she’s already started she may as well continue.

“Okay, I’ll tell you how I feel about your dad if you promise you won’t tell him, ever.” Annie states to Alison in an assertive tone.

“Pinky Promise.” Alison responds as the two girls lock pinkies. Annie takes a few more deep breaths to prepare herself to delve into the complicated story of her and Jeff.

“Hmm, so to get it out of the way, I would love to date your Dad--” Annie says when she is cut off by Alison.

“Okay, so ask him out!” Alison says like it should just be that simple. Annie just sighs.

“Well it really isn’t that simple. I don’t think your dad is interested in going out with  _ me _ ” Annie says just ripping off the band aid and telling her about how her feelings are pretty obviously one sided.

“Then daddy is stupid, your amazing Auntie Annie.” Alison says with a slight pout that Annie can’t help but aww at. Although she wasn’t sure if she should be encouraging the disparaging of her father.

“Well thank you Alison.” Annie says as she leans over to give Alison a hug. “That’s enough of boy talk, let's go back to dolls, we totally aren’t passing the bechdel test.” Alison gives Annie a confused look but shrugs and goes back to playing with her dolls.

Soon enough they were eating dinner and then by the time Annie was telling Alison to go get ready for bed she felt as though the night had gone pretty well and she was actually a little bit sad she wouldn’t get to spend more time with Alison. As she was cleaning up their dishes from dinner she hears a key turn in the door. She’s a little bit startled as she wasn’t expecting Jeff to come home from a boys night so early but soon enough she sees him come through the door, looking a bit exhausted.

“Hey, I wasn’t expecting you back so early” Annie says, a little confused.

“Uh yeah, Duncan showed up already pretty buzzed, and then within an hour he was absolutely blitzed. Troy and Abed seemed to find it pretty funny though and said they would take care of him and I could get home to try and catch my daughter while she was still awake which was.... surprisingly considerate of them.” Jeff says 

“Well you did get back in time, she’s in the bathroom getting ready for bed right now, sorry it wasn’t as fun as you expected.” Annie responds as she walks out of the kitchen over to the door to collect her things, assuming she could head home now.

“Meh, it’s not that big of a deal, I wasn’t expecting much. It's just nice to hang out with people outside of school that aren’t  _ just  _ Duncan.” Jeff says while walking over to Annie. “Thank you so much though, Alison was very excited to spend time with you.” Jeff gives Annie a hug which she certainly wasn’t expecting, but wasn’t gonna complain about.

“She was amazing, it was actually pretty fun.” She pulls out of the hug and walks over to the door “See ya on Monday, Jeff.”

“See ya.” He responds as the door closes. Jeff walks over to the bathroom to surprise Alison, he knocks and she opens the door.

“Daddy!” Alison screeches, toothbrush still in hand, as she runs over to give Jeff a hug.

“Hey sweetie, keep brushing your teeth I just wanted to tell you I was here and that Annie left.” Jeff doesn’t miss the slight pout that appears on her face when he mentions Annie leaving but Alison doesn’t say anything and keeps brushing her teeth. When she’s done Jeff walks with her to tuck her into bed.

“Daddy, can we go out with Auntie Annie and have dinner some time?” She says while giving him the disney eyes he knows for sure that Annie taught her. He can’t resist them on Annie so as soon as he sees a slight pout on his daughter he caves immediately.

“Sure we can, I’ll text her and we can figure something out.” Jeff says and gives his daughter a kiss on the forehead. “Goodnight sweetie.” He walks out of the door and turns off the light. He’s so tired from guys night he goes straight for the shower and gets ready for bed. Once he gets into bed and settles in to watch some TV and pulls out his phone.

_ Hey Annie, Alison was wondering if you wanted to go get dinner with us some night soon, let me know if you wanna. _

-Jeff Winger, 9:47 P.M.

_ I’d love to Jeff! Let’s figure it out sometime soon! _

-Cute, doe eyes, big rack, 9:51 P.M.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any comments are greatly appreciated, I don't write much so it really helps.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big shout out to the Discord Fan Fic Channel for their support in getting through these chapters. You guys are great.
> 
> Thanks to Skitzer1985, Childish_Glover,1sttimefeeling (jeffwing) AlmightyMirage, (Mirage) and Morganatique9 (Morganecdote). They all post work on here, you should check them out.
> 
> Or come check out our Discord Channel.....

Jeff is buttoning up the last couple buttons of his cobalt blue shirt that he knows makes his eyes pop when he hears Alison call out.

“Daddy! Can you come help me?” She belts out loud enough that anybody on the same floor as them could probably hear it. Tonight’s the night that he and Alison are going out to dinner with Annie. He was still constantly harboring an internal debate about his feelings for Annie and this dinner was definitely not gonna help him with it but he really wanted to do it for Alison. He walks into her room to see what she needs.

“Hey, what’s up?” He says as he tucks his shirt into his jeans completing the look.

“Can you help me zip up my dress?” She pouts as she says it. ‘Do you seriously need to give me that look whenever you ask for anything now’ he thinks as he goes over to zip up her cute little blue dress he bought for her on her birthday. Now she wears it whenever she gets the chance to dress up a bit.

“There ya go, sweetie, come on let's get going we don’t wanna be late for Auntie Annie do we now?” He says as he walks out of the room and over to the door to grab his keys motioning to Alison for her to follow him.

“Won’t be an Auntie for long.” Alison sing songs in a quiet voice that Jeff doesn’t hear from the other room as she saunters over to the front door. “I’m ready, let's go!” She says with a beaming smile at her dad.

Jeff just smiles back at her and lets her lead the way out of the door, closing it behind himself.

***

Annie, while applying her makeup for her dinner with Jeff and Alison get’s a text from some guy she gave her number to at a coffee shop. She thinks about responding to it but decides not to. She’s not really sure why she doesn’t herself, he was a nice enough guy and quite handsome, but for some reason, she just couldn’t bring herself to it.

She’s wearing one of her favorite more casual dresses and even she stops to check herself out in the mirror. She’s pretty proud of herself for cleaning up so nicely, sure Britta would have some snarky comment about her doing this in the hope that Jeff will look at her differently but she doesn’t even really care right now. As Alison said, if Jeff can’t see what he’s missing in  _ this _ outfit, he’s the dummy. She’s about to walk out the door when she gets a text from Jeff.

_ Leaving now, meet u there in 20? _

-Jeff Winger, 5:34 P.M.

She smiles, quickly responds to Jeff’s text with an affirmative, takes one last look in the mirror, and then she’s out the door.

***

Jeff gets out of his car and gets Alison out of the backseat then starts walking over to the bistro they would be eating dinner at with Annie.

“Are you excited to see Annie?” Jeff asks Alison but she just responds with a nod, all of her enthusiasm from back at his apartment gone. “What’s wrong sweetie? Are you okay?” Jeff asks Alison but she doesn’t respond and just keeps walking ‘Oh she’s doing this again’ Jeff thinks, sometimes Alison would have days where she would just be silent, and she would never explain to him why she did it. He thinks it probably has something to do with Annie but he thought the two of them were getting along well. He sees Annie waiting at the front of the restaurant.

“Heys guys! How are you, Alison?” Annie addresses Alison but she just blankly stares at her, not responding in any way.

“Sorry, she’s not in the mood to talk. I’m not sure what happened but hopefully she’ll start to feel better later on tonight.” Jeff jumps in for his daughter as he motions for Annie and Alison to walk into the restaurant before him. He follows them in after.

“Well that sucks, I thought she was excited to see me?” Annie says with a pout.

“Oh don’t worry, it’s probably about something that happened at school.” Jeff lies about what he believes to be the case of Alison’s silence for the sake of Annie’s feelings, which he realizes is something he’d only really do for Annie. He shakes that thought out of his head and walks up to the hostess “Reservation under Winger.” He drums his fingers on the table as he waits.

“Right this way Mr. Winger.” The hostess shoots him a wink as she walks away. He’s glad to know he still has it but for some reason, he feels guilty about it. He and Annie aren’t dating, so why should he feel bad? He wishes Alison was talking right now to get him out of his thoughts. The three of them sit down at their table by the window and Alison instantly hides her face behind a menu.

“Man, this is worse than she usually is, she’s not even making eye contact with me.” He waves his hand in front of the menu hiding Alison’s face as if it would do anything. 

“Maybe if we just talk for a bit between each other she’ll feel more comfortable to join in?” Annie suggests.

“Sure that will probably work, I’ve never really had anybody else around to help me out with fixing this.” Jeff says, what neither of them can see is the megawatt smile hidden behind a dinner menu that came about during their agreement.

“So, I seriously have to ask, how the  _ hell _ did Duncan end up being your babysitter?” Annie whispers the cuss as she felt swearing was necessary to prove her point of how crazy that whole situation was to her.

“Well it’s kind of a long story, are you really sure you want to hear it?” He asks and Annie just nods enthusiastically. At her agreement, he launches into the story of Duncan’s DUI, their days of getting hammered in bars, when Duncan met Madeline, and how after he was alone Duncan offered up his help as a return for being a great friend over all the years.

“Wow, Duncan actually seems to be a pretty great guy, maybe I should start hanging out with him more.” Annie says once Jeff has finished his story.

“Well let’s not get too ahead of ourselves here, he just has a soft spot for Alison. It doesn’t make up for the fact that he’s a subpar teacher who is constantly drunk in and out of school.” Jeff says, he really does love bantering with Annie like this, and it’s starting to kinda feel like a… date. ‘No no no no no, this is not a date, your daughter is right there next to you.’ Says his internal voice against the idea of ever dating Annie. ‘Oh but admit it, this is nice. You want this, just ADMIT IT’. His two internal voices continue to rage against each other and he could swear he’s starting to get a headache because of it.

“Do you mind if I ask what Madeline was like? I know it might be hard--” Annie is cut off by Alison slamming her fists into the table where her head now rests after having her menu taken. She makes eye contact with Jeff and puts on a sorry face.

“Sorry about that, I don’t think Alison wants to talk about her mom right now. I can tell you about her some other time though.” Jeff attempts to explain Alison’s reaction, not knowing that she actually didn’t want the topic brought up because she thought it might derail her plan.

“Oh that’s entirely okay, I know that can be a sore spot. So, are you ready for the anthro final?” Annie asks and the two of them slip right back into an easy flowing conversation that Jeff has come to appreciate with Annie.

Inside of Jeff’s head though, his two internal voices are waging war against each other. ‘You absolute idiot, this is so obviously a date and YOU ARE ENJOYING IT.’ A voice says, and he can’t help but agree with it. Alison hasn’t said a word since they got here and he’s been enjoying talking with Annie. ‘Okay but, but what would the group think?’ Jeff could tell his resolve was cracking ever so slowly. Was there any real reason he couldn’t date Annie anymore? All his old reasons were falling apart in front of him. If he could get away with hiding a kid for 2 years they wouldn’t mind him dating Annie.

Jeff’s thoughts continue to battle as the three of them eat and finish their dinner, Alison seemingly perking up, though still not talking. He’s starting to think he’s actually gonna do it, he actually wants to ask Annie on a date. Annie frickin’ Edison.

“Hey Alison, are you ready to talk to us yet?” Annie asks, hopeful that she’ll be able to talk to Alison at least a little bit before the night ends.

“Maybe…” Alison says with a smile on her face, breaking her prolonged silence. “Sorry I was so quiet.” Alison remarks.

“Oh, it’s okay sweetie, if you don’t feel like talking you don’t have to.” Jeff says rubbing his hand through her hair lightly. Secretly thankful for the distraction from the nerves he’s started building after realizing he’s going to ask Annie on a real, adult date.

“Thanks, daddy, but I’m feeling better now.” Alison says regaining some of her previous enthusiasm that he had come to expect from her when it came to seeing the study group.

“Well let’s talk, how has school been Alison?” Annie asks and the two of them jump into a bubbly conversation with Jeff only jumping in every once and awhile. He’s left to stew in his nerves, knowing he shouldn’t ask till they’re leaving. ‘Why am I even nervous?’ He thinks ‘Annie has clearly been into me since the Transfer Dance, there’s no way she turns me down.’ He becomes more conflicted though as his cynical side kicks in again, this time as a voice of doubt. ‘What if I’ve waited too long?’ He thinks ‘I’ve basically been leading her on for a year there is no reason she should deal with my shit.’

The bill comes and Jeff is thankful for the distraction, he grabs it to pay and Annie weakly protests, but Jeff doesn’t let it get much farther than her saying “Let me get it.” The three of them walk out of the bistro and he’s left thinking ‘Well this is it, now or never Winger get it done.’

“Hey you wanna do this again sometime, but maybe without Alison?” Jeff asks Annie, trying hard not to let his nerves show.

“You mean like a date?” Annie asks, clearly nervous that he didn’t mean a date, but with a twinkle of hope in her eyes.

“Um yeah, like a date.” Jeff responds, becoming visibly nervous, having not gotten a response yet. Annie starts bouncing with excitement

“Of course I’ll go on a date with you, you idiot!” She exclaims, pulling Jeff down to her height level for a crushing kiss. At first, Jeff is surprised but then he sinks into it, happily remembering how great Annie’s lips feel on his. Both of them are far too caught up in their own world to hear Alison squealing with excitement behind them, ecstatic that her plan worked out. Jeff pulls out of the kiss.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you then, I gotta get Alison home.” Jeff says and walks away to his car, Alison in tow.

Annie is still glued to her spot in wonder, she pinches herself quickly just to make sure that actually just happened. She still doesn’t fully understand what changed his mind but she isn’t gonna complain. She can’t stop the bounce in her step as she walks over to her car. She’s got a date night outfit to plan.

***

Jeff and Alison are walking through his front door when a question that’s been bugging him comes out.

“Hey, you seemed pretty excited about me and Annie going on a date, what was that about?” Alison turns to him with a sly look.

“Annie told me she wanted you to ask her out!” Alison blurts out like she had been holding it in forever. Jeff gives her a slightly dumbfounded look, surprised she managed to hold on to that little gem of information for so long.

“Wow, well I guess there was no reason for me to be nervous huh.” Jeff says not really talking to anybody in particular. Alison skips over to the bathroom to get ready for bed. Jeff walks over to his bedroom, he’s got a date night outfit to plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any feedback is appreciated!


	5. Rudimentary Dating Principles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeff and Annie go on a date

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end! Thanks to everyone who has read this and left comments or kudos.
> 
> Also thanks to the people over at the Community discord, specifically Skitzer1985, ChildishGlover, jeffwing (1sttimefeeling), Mirage (AlmightyMirage), and Morganecdote (Morgantique9)  
> You should come join us!

Jeff is checking himself out in his mirror, making sure he looks perfect for his date with Annie. He’s taking her to an expensive restaurant he’s not exactly sure he can afford but it’s worth it for her. He still can’t believe he’s actually doing this, he’s going out with Annie Edison. The possibility of this all going wrong and him losing all his friends at Greendale is still very much there but he honestly believes this is something that could last.

He catches himself at the end of that thought, Jeff Winger, committing? What the hell has happened to him? He hasn’t even tried to open himself to a real relationship since Madeline and now he’s considering a relationship with Annie as something that could last. They haven’t even technically gone on a date yet. He’s pulled out of his spiral by a knock on the door, ‘Thank god’ he thinks.

He opens the door to find Duncan standing there sober as a judge.

“Come on in buddy, thanks for agreeing to do this on short notice.” Jeff addresses Duncan as he walks into the apartment.

“Oh you know it’s no problem I love Alison so very much. Liverpool also happens to be playing Manchester United tonight and I wanted to watch them destroy those bastards on your flat screen.” Duncan says as he plops himself on the couch and turns on the TV.

“Well, that makes a lot more sense, also thanks for not gossiping about me going on a date with Annie. I want to make sure we can still pull back if it doesn’t go well.” Jeff walks over to Alison's door and knocks. “Uncle Duncan is here Alison, you gonna come out?” He shouts out.

“One second daddy!” She calls out and Jeff walks over to the couch and sits by Duncan. Hoping the game could possibly distract him from his mounting nerves.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what prompted you to ask out the cute brunette now? If I was you I would’ve hit that long ago.” Duncan says with a wistful look on his face.

“I’m not really sure myself, probably something to do with seeing her around Alison.” Jeff says looking at the TV but not really watching, deep in thought.

“Ah the classic realization of single fathers, you still want a female role model for her even if you weren’t directly looking for one.” Duncan says as he gives Jeff a pat on the back. Alison comes out of her room looking giddy. She goes over to Duncan to give him a hug.

“Hi Uncle Duncan!” She exclaims as Duncan returns the hug, clearly trying to look past her to see the TV.

“Well hello Aly, you seem excited.” Duncan remarks absently as the Man U goalie makes a magnificent save. “Damnit.” he breaths out quietly.

A knock on the door prompts Jeff to get up. He already knows who it is but he still checks out the peephole and he sees Annie standing there, looking absolutely gorgeous in a short black dress. He opens the door and he can't stop himself from checking her out, Annie notices and flushes under his gaze.

“Hey… wow, you look gorgeous.” Jeff swallows.

“You too Jeff…” She trails off and eyes him up and down, taking in his charcoal suit.

“Do you want to come in or should we head straight to the restaurant?” Jeff asks casually, attempting to mask his nerves.

“Let’s just go to the restaurant.” Annie says and turns around motioning for Jeff to follow him. As the door latches Alison lets out a squeal of delight, successfully distracting Duncan from the game.

“Okay, what’s all this excitement about Aly? It’s becoming very distracting.” Duncan asks as he turns away from the screen reluctantly.

“I did that, I got the two of them to go out!” She squeaks out bouncing up and down in place.

“Well, how did you do that?” Duncan asks and Alison launches into what she had plotted over the previous week.

***

Jeff gets out of his car and walks over to Annie’s door to let her out. He offers her his arm.

“Milady?” Jeff says, and Annie can’t help but bounce in excitement at the pet name finally being used in a romantic sense, not that she's dreamed about it constantly or anything…

“Milord” She says as she accepts his arm and gets out of the car. The two of them get out of the car and walk into the restaurant.

“Reservation for two, it’s under Winger.” Jeff says to the hostess.

“Right this way, Mr. Winger” This time when the hostess shoots him a wink he actually has a reason to feel guilty. He tightens his grip around Annie’s shoulders hoping she accepts it as a sign of him choosing her. She squeezes his waist harder in return and rests her head on him lightly, he assumes it’s meant as a sign of acceptance.

They take a seat at a table and begin lightly conversing, similarly to how they would at Greendale, but just in a different location. They got some wine to help lighten the mood and maybe help get rid of the underlying feeling of  _ this is really happening.  _ Jeff takes a sip of the wine.

“So Alison told me something interesting the other day after the three of us had dinner.” Jeff says. Annie takes a sip of wine.

“Oh, and what was that?” Annie asks, quite curious about what Alison might have said.

“She may have said something about you telling her that you wanted me to ask you out.” Jeff throws the comment out casually and Annie instantly reddens and looks down at her glass, avoiding eye contact.

“She said she wouldn’t tell you.” Annie mumbles out, still avoiding Jeff’s eyes.

“Oh come on there’s no need to be embarrassed, I thought it was cute how happy she was about it. Also it obviously doesn’t matter considering we’re here, on a  _ date _ .” Jeff says with an emphasis on the word date. Annie finally looks up.

“I guess that’s true, and she did seem weirdly excited about us going out.” Annie says.

“Yeah I wonder what all that was about.” Jeff contemplates and then Annie’s eyes widen.

“Oh my god!” She exclaims.

“What? What’s up?” Jeff says confusedly, not sure what prompted Annie’s surprise.

  
“Alison totally set us up!” She exclaims giddily as she starts bouncing a little in her chair, unable to keep herself under control.

“I don’t understand.” Jeff says looking at her curiously.

“Think about it!” She exclaims, stopping her bouncing and calming herself down to explain her realization. “I told her about wanting to go out with you and then she called you stupid for not wanting to go out with me--”

“Hey!” Jeff shouts out

Annie plows right through his outburst “--and then she asked to go out to dinner with me but then barely said a word. It all makes so much sense, and it explains why she was so excited about us going out.” She finishes her statement and finally stops to take a breath.

“Oh my god she so set us up.” Jeff realizes and leans back in his chair. “That’s actually pretty cute, and I’m happy she did it.” Jeff says as he takes Annie’s hand. “Because I’m quite enjoying this.”

“Me too, I’m happy she got you to finally come to your senses.” Annie giggles. Jeff just guffaws at that but doesn’t even try to argue the point.

After all the underlying tension is smashed by the conversation about Alison they spend the rest of the night flitting through topics and just enjoying each other's company. Dinner comes and goes and soon enough the check is there and Jeff immediately goes for it. Annie protests lightly but knowing her current financial situation they both know it was more out of custom. After Jeff pays they go back to Jeff’s car and he drives them back to his place.

***

As the two of them step out of the car in Jeff’s buildings parking lot they look at eachother

“Well I guess this is it.” Jeff says looking at Annie, noticing her eyes flick down to his lips momentarily.

  
“Uhum” She mumbles out, still distracted by his lips.

“Do you wanna do this again sometime?” Jeff asks “I know how you love your labels... and I wouldn’t mind calling you my girlfriend.” Jeff says scratching the back of his neck, internally gagging out how middle school that sounded, but Annie brought out that side of him. Annie bounces as she hears him say girlfriend.

“Of course I want to do this again.” She says as she pulls Jeff down for a frenzied kiss. “Otherwise I wouldn’t get to do that anymore.” She says as she pulls out of the kiss. Jeff looks down at her with darkened eyes as he crowds her back into the passenger side of the car.

“Well I guess that makes sense.” He says as he pins her into the car and bends down for another passionate kiss. Annie sighs into his mouth and that just encourages him to go farther, deepening the kiss. After a couple minutes of making out like teenagers Jeff pulls back.

“I should probably get back home to Troy and Abed before they get suspicious, this was nice Jeff.” She says, still a little frazzled from the makeout session.

“I don’t mind if you tell them, we’ll probably tell everyone soon anyways.” Jeff says.

“How about this, if they ask, I’ll tell them. If they don’t we’ll tell them along with everybody else.” Annie proposes as she starts walking over to her car.

“Sounds good, see ya soon Annie!” Jeff calls out as he walks over to his apartment building.

***

Annie enters Apartment 303 and sees Troy and Abed sitting in their recliners watching The Dark Knight Rises. She walks in, hoping to get to her room before they can question her.

“Hey Annie! How was your date with Jeff?” Abed calls out over his shoulder. Annie stops in place and turns to look at him in shock. ‘How the hell does he already know?’ She thinks to herself. She decides to just go with it, considering it’s Abed he’d probably figured it out as soon as she left.

“It was actually pretty nice, probably the best date I’ve been on in recent memory.” She says, hoping she won’t have to go into detail.

“Sounds nice Annie, we’re happy for you” Troy says as he turns around with a massive grin on his face.

“Anything interesting happen?” Abed asks, still facing forward in his chair.

“Well, we actually figured out that Alison kinda set us up to date.” She says as she takes a seat on the couch behind Troy and Abed.

“Parent Trap, that wasn’t the plan but it still works.” Abed states plainly “Does it feel wrong to anybody else that we’re all here right now?” He asks.

“Wait, what do you mean  _ the plan _ ?” Annie asks, ignoring Abed’s question.

“We may have been trying to set you and Jeff up.” Troy says as he turns back towards the TV to avoid eye contact.

“Awwww, that’s actually pretty sweet. Thanks guys.” She says as she hops up to give the two a hug, Abed still mumbling something about timing inconsistencies and lazy writing. With her best friends and new boyfriend, the word still new on Annie’s tongue, she’s feeling pretty happy with life.

**_END_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know Troy Abed and Annie weren't living together at this point so this ending doesn't exactly make sense but I had already written it when I realized. I hope it doesn't bother you too much!

**Author's Note:**

> As I said earlier this is my first attempt at fanfic, so any feedback is appreciated!


End file.
